DraftKings investigating if two brothers used 'illegal strategy' to win contest

Expect a resumption of heated national discussion of fantasy sports rules and regulations now that major industry player DraftKings is investigating if two brothers used what is being termed an “illegal strategy” to win last weekend’s “Football Millionaire” contest.

The DraftKings head of compliance Jennifer Aguiar confirmed the probe to the Wall Street Journal Thursday saying “We are in the process of an ongoing investigation.” She said the company hasn’t yet determined if there was any wrongdoing.”

The website “Deadspin” says the DraftKings probe appears to be centered on indications that at least one winner of Sunday’s contest was able to circumvent the site’s limits on how many entries each user can submit and how much cooperation they can have with other players.

Fantasy Football Millionaire rules allow players to submit 150 entries. Winning a mass-entry contest requires not just having high-scoring players, but additionally high-scoring players that nobody else owns. The more line-ups an entrant has would improve the chances of winning.

Deadspin says the investigation appears to be about whether the brothers colluded and pooled lineup data violating the fantasy site’s collusion rules.

One of brothers, Martin Crowley of Greensboro, N.C. spoke to the Wall Street Journal and denied colluding.

A Nevada-based fantasy sports operation, USFantasy (USF), began offering legal fantasy wagers in the state two weeks ago. USF is the first of its kind to be licensed by a state gaming commission and is based on pari-mutuel betting model.